Pool Crack Repair: The Data Behind Our Lifetime Warranty
Gunite cracks, plaster cracks, cracked tile, cracked spas, cracked pipes, sinking pools, lifting pools. We tracked what held and what failed across 14 years of repairs. The industry standard is staples with no warranty. Ours is different.
Call For a Diagnosis: 214-972-3330Our field service records show that staple-only crack repairs fail more than 50% of the time once a crack runs past 6 feet or stretches across the pool, no matter which staple type is used. That is why our crack repairs combine staples with foundation repair, reviewed by an independent licensed Texas Professional Engineer. Done that way, the repair carries a Lifetime Warranty. Staple-only or putty-only repairs do not, and we tell you that before any work begins.
Every Claim on This Page Comes From Our Own Repair Records
Mr. Pool Leak Repair started as a pool remodel company in DFW 14 years ago and grew into one of the leading leak detection and remodel companies in the region. Every leak detection, crack repair, and remodel we perform is logged in our field service records: the crack type, its length and location, the repair method used, and whether we were ever called back.
Over those years we tested every staple technology the industry uses: fiber staples, steel staples welded together, torque staples, rebar staples, and welded rebar staples. We also worked alongside every major foundation repair method: helical piers, steel piers, soil injections, and foam injections. Then we compared outcomes.
No matter which staple type we used, when a crack ran longer than 6 feet or stretched across the pool, staple-only repairs failed more than half the time. Of the staple-only repairs on long cracks that we have been called back to re-inspect, more than half were leaking again. That finding is why we brought in independent licensed Texas Professional Engineers and changed how we repair cracks.
Every Type of Pool Crack, and What It Usually Means
Cracks are a symptom. The repair only lasts if you first identify what the crack is telling you. These are the crack types we diagnose and repair every week in DFW.
Gunite Shell Cracks
Structural cracks that run through the concrete shell itself, not just the surface. These are the cracks most likely to leak and most likely to reopen after a staple-only repair, because they are usually caused by soil movement under the pool.
Plaster Cracks
Hairline or check cracks in the plaster surface. Some are cosmetic craze cracking. Others telegraph a shell crack underneath. A leak detection tells you which one you have before you spend money replastering over a moving crack.
Cracked Tile & Tile Line Cracks
Cracked, popping, or falling tile along the waterline. Tile is rigid, so it is often the first place soil movement shows. A run of cracked tile on one side of the pool is a classic early sign of sinking or lifting.
Bond Beam Cracks
Cracks in the reinforced beam at the top of the pool wall, often paired with cracked tile and loose coping. Bond beam damage almost always points to movement and needs an engineer-reviewed plan, not putty.
Coping & Deck Cracks
Cracked or separating coping stones and pool deck cracks. When the deck cracks in a pattern radiating away from the pool, the soil is moving the whole structure, not just the concrete flatwork.
Step, Bench & Sundeck Cracks
Cracks across steps, benches, and tanning ledges. These features are shallower than the main shell, so expansive clay pushes on them differently than the deep end, which is exactly how differential movement starts.
Sidewall Cracks
Vertical or diagonal cracks in the pool walls. Diagonal cracks running from corners or around skimmers usually indicate the shell is being twisted by uneven soil support.
Deep End & Shallow End Floor Cracks
Floor cracks concentrated at one end of the pool. The pattern matters: deep end cracking versus shallow end cracking helps our engineers determine which part of the pool the soil is moving.
Cracked Spa
Attached spas crack where they meet the pool, at the dam wall, and around jets. Because spas run hotter water through smaller structures, spa cracks tend to leak faster and waste more heated water.
Cracked Pipe
Underground plumbing cracked by the same soil movement that cracks shells. If the ground is moving enough to crack gunite, it is moving enough to crack PVC. We locate cracked pipes without tearing up your deck, backed by our 3 Year Warranty on Pipe Repairs.
Not sure which type of crack you're looking at? Send us a photo or call. Diagnosis comes before any repair conversation.
📞 214-972-3330We Tested Every Staple Type the Industry Uses
Staples are the industry standard answer to a cracked pool. Over 14 years we have installed and re-inspected every major type. Here is what each one is, and what our records show about all of them.
Across all of these staple types, our records show the same pattern: the longer the crack, the higher the failure rate. Once a crack runs past 6 feet or stretches across the pool, staple-only repairs fail more than 50 percent of the time. The staple is not the problem. The moving soil underneath the pool is. A staple can hold a crack together, but it cannot hold the ground still.
The Industry Standard Is Staples With No Warranty
In our experience, almost no pool repair or replaster company offers any warranty on staple repairs. Staples are the current industry standard for pool cracks, they carry a failure rate above 50 percent on long cracks, and the companies installing them will not stand behind them. Customers are paying for a repair that fails half the time with no recourse when it does.
Most companies that recommend staples are pool remodel or plaster companies. Staples are a line item on the way to a replaster, not a diagnosis. When those companies staple and replaster without ever diagnosing why the pool cracked, the crack reopens through the brand new plaster, and the customer calls us back at step one, out the cost of a remodel. We take those calls every month. It is the single most preventable expensive mistake we see in DFW pools.
We publish our failure data because we believe homeowners should know what the industry standard actually delivers before they pay for it.
Had staples installed and they've already failed? Our records predicted that. Call us and we'll diagnose why.
📞 214-972-3330Sinking Pool or Lifting Pool? In DFW, That Is the First Question
A band of expansive gray clay runs through Texas from San Antonio up to Oklahoma, and in Dallas-Fort Worth it is at its worst. This clay swells when it rains and shrinks in drought, moving everything built on top of it. That is why DFW has pools that sink and pools that lift, sometimes both at once at different ends of the same pool. We mapped how severe this soil is in every DFW city in our DFW Soil Risk Map.
Before we recommend any crack repair, we determine which one is happening. We are experts at making that determination, and here is exactly how we do it:
How We Determine Sinking vs Lifting Before Any Repair
Digital Level Measurement
We measure elevation at points around your pool with a digital level meter, capturing exactly how far each section has moved from level. This gives us measurable data, not visual estimates.
Plotted Diagram
We plot every reading on a diagram of your pool, turning the measurements into a visual map of where the pool is sinking, lifting, or twisting.
Independent Engineer Review
The diagram and readings are reviewed by an independent licensed Texas Professional Engineer, who confirms the movement pattern and the repair plan. This oversight covers cracks anywhere on the pool: steps, bench, deep end, shallow end, sundeck, sidewall, bond beam, tile, coping, and deck.
Combined Repair Plan: Staples + Piers
In most movement cases we recommend a combination of staples and piers: piers to stabilize the soil problem, staples to repair the crack it caused. Fixing both is what makes a repair last a lifetime. Read the full pier process on our pool foundation repair page.
Crack repairs completed with foundation repair carry a Lifetime Warranty. Because we fix the cause, not just the crack.
Schedule a DiagnosisThe Warranty That Comes With Our Crack Repair Method
Lifetime Warranty
Crack repairs completed together with foundation repair using our engineer-reviewed method carry a lifetime warranty. When we fix the crack and the soil movement that caused it, we back that repair for life. This includes our Lifetime Warranty on Structural Pier Repairs.
What the Lifetime Warranty Does Not Cover
Staple-only or putty-only repairs do not carry the lifetime warranty, because our own data shows they fail more than half the time on long cracks. We will do a staple-only repair if a customer chooses it, and we will tell you exactly what our records say about it first.
3 Year Warranty on Pipe Repairs
Cracked and leaking underground pipes we repair are covered by our 3 Year Warranty on Pipe Repairs.
3 Year Warranty on Seal Repairs
Seal repairs, including skimmer, fitting, and light niche seals, are covered by our 3 Year Warranty on Seal Repairs.
Never Remodel, Replaster, or Re-Tile Without a Leak Detection First
Before you get a pool remodel in DFW, call Mr. Pool Leak Repair for a leak detection first. We say that as a company that started in pool remodeling 14 years ago and still remodels pools today.
There are three reasons we will not remodel a pool without a leak detection, and they apply no matter who does your remodel:
1. A Leak Can Ruin New Plaster
If the pool is leaking and you replaster over it, water moving through the shell can damage the brand new plaster from behind. You end up paying for a remodel twice.
2. Remodel Prep Creates Leaks
Many remodel companies create leaks in the process of prepping a pool for plaster: chipping around fittings, disturbing old plumbing, stressing the tile line. Without a leak detection before the work, there is no way for the customer to prove the pool was not leaking when the remodel started, or to know why it is leaking after.
3. Nobody Else Guarantees the Result
We do not know of another company that backs a plaster job or remodel with a 3 year no leak guarantee. Ours do. We diagnose first, repair what we find, then remodel, and we warranty our own pools in house.
Who Trusts Us With This
Several of DFW's biggest new construction, pool remodel, and weekly pool service companies send their leak detections to Mr. Pool Leak Repair. The companies building and maintaining DFW pools use us to find the leaks. That should tell you how to sequence your remodel.
Planning a remodel? Book it with us and the leak detection comes with it. Free.
📞 214-972-3330Services Involved in a Pool Crack Diagnosis and Repair
Crack repairs rarely happen in isolation. Here are the services typically involved depending on what we find.
Pool Foundation Repair
Pier stabilization for pools affected by DFW soil movement. The other half of every lifetime-warranty crack repair.
DFW Soil Risk Map
How severe the expansive gray clay is in your city, mapped across 55 DFW municipalities.
Pool Leak Detection
Full diagnostic inspection to confirm which cracks are actively leaking before any repair begins.
Pool Remodel
Diagnosed, repaired, then remodeled. Backed by our 3 year no leak guarantee, with leak detection included free.
Dye Test
Confirms exactly which cracks are leaking before any repair conversation happens.
Pool Tile Repair
Shell movement causes waterline tile to crack and separate, often repaired alongside structural work.
Pool Crack Repair: Common Questions
Our field service records, covering more than 4,200 documented leak detection and repair jobs, show staple-only repairs on cracks longer than 6 feet fail at a rate above 50 percent, regardless of staple type. Staples repair the symptom in the shell. If the cause is soil movement, the crack reopens. We recommend staples combined with foundation repair, reviewed by an independent licensed Texas Professional Engineer, and that is the only crack repair we back with a lifetime warranty.
In our experience, almost no pool repair or replaster company offers any warranty on staples, even though staples are the industry standard. We offer a lifetime warranty on crack repairs completed together with foundation repair using our method. Staple-only and putty-only repairs are excluded from the lifetime warranty, and we tell every customer that before the work begins.
Yes. Before you get a pool remodel in DFW, call Mr. Pool Leak Repair for a leak detection first. Replastering over a leak can ruin the new plaster, remodel prep work often creates new leaks, and without a leak detection there is no way to know why a freshly remodeled pool is losing water. Our own remodels come with a 3 year no leak guarantee, and leak detection is included free when you book a remodel with us.
Expansive gray clay runs from San Antonio to Oklahoma and is especially severe in Dallas-Fort Worth. It swells when wet and shrinks when dry, moving the soil under the pool. Some pools sink, some lift, and the stress cracks the shell, tile, bond beam, coping, and deck. See how your city scores on our DFW Soil Risk Map.
We measure elevations around the pool with a digital level meter, plot the readings on a diagram of the pool, and have the results reviewed by an independent licensed Texas Professional Engineer. The pattern shows whether the pool is sinking, lifting, or both, which determines the right combination of staples and piers.
Usually, yes. The same soil movement that cracks a gunite shell cracks the PVC plumbing around it. We locate cracked underground pipes without tearing up the deck, and our pipe repairs carry a 3 Year Warranty on Pipe Repairs.
Get the Crack Diagnosed Before Anyone Repairs It
Engineer-reviewed crack repair backed by the only lifetime warranty on crack repairs we know of in DFW. Diagnosis first, repair second, warranty always in writing.
Call 214-972-3330 Schedule OnlineLast reviewed: Septmeber 2026